Contrary to many global banks retreating from various businesses in Asia-Pacific, Société Générale is not only staying, but also growing in the region. How is it staying profitable? Stefania Palma asks the lender's Asia-Pacific CEO, Hikaru Ogata.

Tseng Ming-chung, chairman of Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission, is seen by many as the bringer of long-awaited deregulation and reform. Two years into his mandate, Mr Tseng gives The Banker an update on his strategy, which is already bearing fruit.

The intervention of the Chinese government when the country's stock market lost more than one-third of its value in mid-June did not surprise many people, but the timing and manner of the action has disappointed some.

With state funding on the decline, and new technologies and more stringent regulation both increasing, the Indian banking sector is undergoing a significant period of change. New players are entering the market, making it even more difficult for the state-owned banks, which are already struggling with deteriorating asset quality and incoming capital adequacy targets.

Jiang Jianqing, the chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, explains how the largest bank in the world in capital, profits and assets is dealing with China’s economic slowdown, structural reforms and new privately owned, tech-savvy entrants in the banking sector.

The Indian government may be keen for consolidation in the banking sector – driven by a desire to see the country's lenders figure among the world's largest banks – but internal resistance to such changes, from bank employees and their unions in particular, continue to thwart such activity. On top of this, India's lenders are struggling with non-performing assets, which has proved a blight on their profits over the past 12 months.

China's economic growth is slowing and its banking sector is having to adapt to new policies aimed at bringing the market closer to the final reform of liberalising interest rates. Even the largest banks in the country have had to reconsider their strategies to face this evolving environment. How will they reinvent themselves? Stefania Palma reports.

The problems facing China's small, province-focused banks – the country's economic slowdown, deteriorating asset quality, increasing costs – are much the same as those facing the 'big four'. However, smaller banks are also having to contend with enormous debt problems run up by their provinces. Stefania Palma looks at how two of them – Bank of Nanjing and China Zheshang Bank – are faring.

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